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January 21, 2005
Sderot teenager succumbs to wounds from Kassam attack
DAVID RUDGE
Hundreds of people attended the funeral in Sderot on Friday of Ayala Haya Abukasis, 17, who died of wounds suffered in the Kassam rocket attack on her Negev town last Saturday.
Abukasis was critically wounded when she used her body to shield her younger brother, Tamir, 11. She was declared dead at Beersheba's Soroka Hospital on Friday.
Tamir was released from the hospital after being treated for minor wounds last Tuesday, the same day his sister was declared brain dead.
Family and friends hoped and prayed she would make a recovery. But on Friday she was disconnected from the equipment that had been keeping her alive artificially.
Her parents bid farewell to their daughter at the hospital before making preparations for the funeral. Her father, Yonathan, said they did not want her to suffer any longer when all hope was lost.
"Last Saturday with Ayala was a very special Shabbat at which our eldest daughter was also here with our grandson," Abukasis told reporters prior to the funeral.
"In the afternoon, we were at her grandmother's home and celebrated the birthday of one of the granddaughters. From there she went with her brother to activities with Bnei Akiva."
Abukasis said Ayala acted like the guardian of her younger brother from the outset of the Kassam rocket attacks on the town by Palestinians.
She accompanied him everywhere, slept alongside him, waited outside the bathroom for him and went with him to the computer on the second floor of the family's home, said Abukasis, who spent the week at the hospital praying for her recovery.
Ayalah and Tamir were returning with friends from Bnei Akiva when the siren sounded, giving them 20 seconds warning of an incoming missile. They did not have time to take cover, so she shielded Tamir, who escaped with relatively minor wounds when the rocket fell and exploded alongside them, and she was fatally wounded.
At the funeral, her father read a passage from a letter, found in her room, in which she wrote that there were times "when we witness life ending in a moment."
MK Amir Peretz, former mayor of Sderot, was among those who attended the funeral and eulogized Abukasis, along with incumbent mayor Eli Moyal. There were no government representatives.
"She was returning after trying to give support to another bereaved family and heard the warning siren that a Kassam was on the way," said Peretz. "She didn't think twice and immediately shielded her brother. She wanted to hug him and protect him and she did that as if she was one of the most courageous fighters."
Peretz said Ayala had proved herself to be like IDF soldiers fighting to defend the state with tremendous bravery, and had saved her brother's life at the cost of her own.
Moyal expressed the hope that Abukasis would be the last victim of Kassam rocket attacks or any other Palestinian terrorist operations.
In Memoriam
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